Passage

1 Peter 1.25

Book: 1 Peter · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

23. having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth. 24. For, All flesh is as grass, And all the glory thereof as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower falleth:

25. But the word of the Lord abideth for ever. And this is the word of good tidings which was preached unto you. (1 Peter 1:23-25, ASV)

WEB

23. having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and remains forever. 24. For, “All flesh is like grass, and all of man’s glory like the flower in the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls;

25. but the Lord’s word endures forever.” This is the word of Good News which was preached to you. (1 Peter 1:23-25, WEB)

KJV

23. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 24. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: ^{For: or, For that}

25. But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. (1 Peter 1:23-25, KJV)

YLT

23. being begotten again, not out of seed corruptible, but incorruptible, through a word of God, living and remaining, to the age; 24. because all flesh [is] as grass, and all glory of man as flower of grass; wither did the grass, and the flower of it fell away,

25. and the saying of the Lord doth remain, to the age; and this is the saying that was proclaimed good news to you. (1 Peter 1:23-25, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Peter, who opens the letter as "an apostle of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:1) and writes "by Silvanus" (1 Peter 5:12), most likely his secretary or the courier of the letter. Many critical scholars read the letter as written in Peter's name by a later disciple; the traditional attribution still has careful defenders.
Audience: "the elect who are sojourners of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia" (1:1), churches across five regions of Roman Asia Minor. Most were Gentile converts, who had lived "in the time of your ignorance" (1:14), and they faced slander and social pressure from their neighbors more than official state persecution.
Location: written from "Babylon" (1 Peter 5:13), most likely a cover name for Rome, as in Revelation 14:8.
Time period: If written by Peter, c. AD 62-64, before his death in Rome under Nero. Scholars who read the letter as pseudonymous usually place it later, c. AD 70-95. The date is debated; the reading below does not depend on it.

Theological reading

"But the word of the Lord abideth for ever. And this is the word of good tidings which was preached unto you." (1 Peter 1:25, ASV)

The permanent word. This completes the quotation of Isaiah 40:8. Isaiah wrote "the word of our God shall stand forever"; Peter gives it as "the word of the Lord." Against the grass that withers (1 Peter 1:24), the word of God does not.

Isaiah's word is the gospel. The second sentence is Peter's own application, and it is bold: "this is the word of good tidings which was preached unto you." The enduring word Isaiah spoke of is identified with the gospel message the readers heard from their evangelists. In Isaiah 40 the same chapter goes on to speak of "good tidings" to Zion (40:9), so Peter's application follows the line of the prophet's own thought.

Why this matters for the readers. The new birth of 1:23 came "through the word of God, which liveth and abideth." If the word that begot them abides for ever, the life it produced is not as fragile as their circumstances. This is the ground for the call that opens chapter 2: as newborn babes, "long for the spiritual milk which is without guile" (2:2).

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

G2097 - euangelizo, euangelizo, Strong's G2097
G0165 - aion, aion, Strong's G0165
G2962 - kyrios, kyrios, Strong's G2962

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

KJV Only Objection Defeater

Concepts:

Manuscripts, via 1 Peter 1.23-25

Passages:

Notes

Your annotations.

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.